good question!

For what use is it if without the city walls war is being waged, while within it suffers ruin? St. Columban + 615

a beautiful weekend

Wonderful fall weather, frost on the pumpkins. 21 people from Concordia went prayer walking on Saturday morning, distributing almost 300 door hangers informing people that we were praying for them and inviting them to contact us with specific prayer concerns. Amazing stuff happens when the Good News comes with power -- things previously thought impossible begin to occur. Hosting six young people from Youth Encounter brought blessings all day Saturday and Sunday morning.
Ponder this gem from the current bishop of Rome, Benedict XVI:
"Being missionaries means loving God with all one's heart, even to the point, if necessary, of dying for him...being missionaries means stooping down to the needs of all, like the Good Samaritan, especially those of the poorest and most destitute people, because those who love with Christ's Heart do not seek their own interests but the glory of the Father and the good of their neighbor alone." (29 April 2006 Benedictus)

an evil generation

"...no sign will be given it except the sign of Jonah. Just as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so will the Son of Man be to this generation. At the judgment the queen of the south will rise with the men of the generation and she will condemn them, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and there is something greater than Solomon here. At the judgment, the men of Nineveh will arise with this generation and condemn it, because at the preaching of Jonah they repented, and there is something greater than Jonah here." (Luke 11)
I've never understood how "scholars" can doubt the story of Jonah when Jesus so clearly states what will happen on the Last Day regarding those who repented at the preaching of Jonah. Each of us likewise needs to turn to God and change the way we think and act, and belive the Good News, as the Spirit works on our hearts through the Word.

God or Money

"The idols of the nations are made of silver and gold. They were made by human hands. They have mouths, but they cannot speak. They have eyes, but they cannot see. They have ears, but they cannot hear. They cannot breathe. Those who make idols end up like them. So does everyone who trusts them." (Psalm 135:15-18)
Expecting such idols to speak, see, hear or breathe surely qualifies as the pinnacle of irrationality, dare we say insanity. There are those who trust such idols; then there are those who (how crazy is this?!) trust those who make the idols.
May Dagon fall down before the ark and Gideon tear down the Baal so that we might fear, love and trust in the true and living God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, one God blessed forever.

The Spiritual Man

Many years ago, I came across Watchman Nee, and found him incomprehensible. Today some rays of light are coming through:) Here is a sample passage:
Why does God crucify our old man with Christ and render our body jobless? His purpose is that "we should no longer serve sin." What God has done in this regard makes it possible for us not to yield thereafter to the pressure of sin nor to be bound by its power. Sin will exercise no dominion over us. Hallelujah! We must praise God for this deliverance.
How shall we enter into such blessing? Two elements are indispensable. First, "reckon yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus". This is the essential of faith. When God avows that our old man was crucified with Christ we believe His Word and "reckon ourselves as dead." How then do we die? "We reckon ourselves as dead to sin." When God affirms that we are resurrected with Christ we again trust His Word and "reckon ourselves alive." How then do we live? "We reckon ourselves as alive to God." This reckoning is none other than believing God accortding to His Word. When God says our old man was crucified, we account ourselves dead; when He insists we are made alive, we reckon ourselves as alive. The failure of many lies in the desire to feel, to see and to experience this crucifixion and resurrection before trusting in the Word of God.
These do not realize that God has already done it in Christ and that if only they would believe His Word by reckoning that what He has done is true, His Holy Spirit would give them the experience. His Spirit would communicate to them what is in Christ.
Second, "neither yield your members instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but yield yourselves to God as alive from among the dead and your members instruments of righteousness to God". This is the essential of consecration. If we persist in holding on to something which God wants us to relinquish, sin shall have dominion over us, and our reckoning shall be futile. If we fail to yield our members as godly instruments of righteousness to speak and do what He desires and go where He directs, should we be surprised we are not yet delivered from sin? Whenever we refuse to relinquish or we offer resistance to God, sin shall return to its dominion. Under such circumstances we naturally lose the power to reckon, that is, to belive God's Word. In our ceasing to exercise faith and to reckon, can we still be said to be positionally in Christ? Yes, but we are living no longer in Him according to the sense of the "abide in me" of John 15. Accordingly, we are unqualified to experience what is factual in Christ, even our crucifixion.Not every word written by men is "Gospel" -- read with caution and discernment!